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Star Trek Renewed
"Star Trek" renewed for another season (1969-70), despite low ratings. William Shatner replaced as Enterprise captain by an unknown actor, Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford makes his "Star Trek" debut as Captain William Riker; reviews of his performance are mostly positive, although a few smart-alecks in the press poke fun at his relative inexperience in series TV. NBC airs "The Last Crusade", the first of a two-part 'Trek' episode in which Captain Riker puts his life and career at risk to clear a fellow officer of murder charges. It becomes the highest-rated episode in series history. NBC renews "Star Trek" through the 1972-73 season. In a sign of Ford's increasing popularity, TV Guide makes him the focus of an article titled 'The New Face Of Star Trek'; movie producer Irwin Allen is quoted in the article as expressing an interest in having Ford appear in his new disaster adventure film "Air Force One". NBC airs the series pilot of "Deep Space Nine", a "Star Trek" spinoff set on board a space station near the Neutral Zone. The show makes history as the first weekly series to cast an African-American man in the lead role; Richard Roundtree plays Ben LaForge, a former shipmate of Captain Riker and the station's commanding officer. The new series is an instant hit with critics and viewers. NBC airs "The Undiscovered Country", a 'Star Trek' episode whose storyline foreshadows the real-life political crisis that will engulf America four months later with the Watergate break-in. This episode features Richard Roundtree in the first of eight guest appearances on the original 'Trek' series; it later goes on to win three Emmy awards for writing, art direction, and outstanding single performance by an actor in a dramatic series. Irwin Allen's "Air Force One", starring Ford as a senator and ex- combat flyer who must steer the presidential plane to an emergency landing when a midair collision kills the regular flight crew, is released in the US and Canada. Seeking to capitalize on the film's box office success, NBC signs Ford to a new three-year contract and renews "Star Trek" through the 1974-75 season. With production costs for "Star Trek" and "Deep Space Nine" putting an increasing strain on NBC's overall budget, network executives are forced to announce the cancellation of both series at the end of the 1978 season. The blow is somewhat softened, however, with the news that "Trek"'s parent company, Paramount, has signed "American Graffiti" director George Lucas to helm a feature film adaptation of the series. TV Guide prints the results of a readers' poll naming the best series of the '70s; "Star Trek" and "Deep Space Nine" both make the top 10, with "Trek" ranked number two and "DS9" checking in at number six. "Star Trek: A New Hope", the first feature film based on the original "Trek" series, is released worldwide. In a nod to the original show's time-honored tradition of using science fiction to deal with current issues, the movie's plot uses the invasion of a defenseless planet as a metaphor for the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, sparking furious protests from the Kremlin. Shooting begins at the Paramount backlot in Hollywood for "Star Trek: The Voyage Home", the sequel to "A New Hope". Confirming months of speculation, Harrison Ford says in an interview for "The Today Show" that this movie will mark the end of his association with the "Trek" franchise. "Star Trek: The Voyage Home" is released in the US. While its theatrical run is slightly shorter than that of "A New Hope", it does well enough at the box office to prompt Paramount to go forward with tentative plans for a syndicated spinoff of the original 'Trek' series titled "Starfleet Academy", which would chronicle James Kirk's post-Enterprise career as an instructor to a group of incoming Starfleet recruits. "Starfleet Academy" makes its debut on 156 TV stations across the US. Christopher Plummer joins the cast of Starfleet Academy as Academy superintendent and former Kirk mentor Admiral Malcolm Archer. NBC airs the Star Trek 20th Anniversary reunion movie "The Empire Strikes Back". Written and directed by George Lucas, the movie reunites the entire original cast, the casts of "Deep Space Nine" and "Starfleet Academy" and guest stars Ricardo Montalban as Kahn Noonien Singh from the first season's "Space Seed". The story details Kahn's overthrow of the Klingon Empire and his thirst for revenge against James Kirk and the Federation. Using a new weapon developed by Kirk's estranged son, the Klingon's wipe out several hundred Federation colonies, killing millions. The Federation response is more deadly. In the end, the Enterprise destroys the Klingon homeworld, but lose Captain Riker in the process. The movie turns out to be the most watched television event since "Roots" and even goes so far as to better relations between the US and the Soviet Union (which had always been seen as the real world counterparts to the Federation and Klingon Empire). Hoping to capitalize on the success of The Empire Strikes Back and the critical and popular acclaim being enjoyed by Starfleet Academy in its sixth season, Paramount and NBC team up to develop a new Star Trek series, Voyager, for the 1987-88 fall season. Set in the 22nd century, during the Federation's early days, the new series stars Mariette Hartley as Captain Miranda Janeway, commander of one of Starfleet's first deep-space exploration cruisers. While producers are tight-lipped regarding storylines for the initial episodes, they do confirm that the series pilot will deal with the historic first contact between Earth and Vulcan and that subsequent episodes will shed light on historical figures such as warp drive inventor Zefrem Cochrane and Klingon folk hero Kahless the Unforgettable. In a press release,Paramount announces that Christopher Plummer will be leaving the cast of Starfleet Academy in January to resume working full-time in feature films. However,the door has been left open for the possibility of a guest appearance by Plummer in future episodes. 19-year-old Auckland,New Zealand native Lucy Lawless beats out 20,000 other hopefuls--including some of America's best-known teen actresses--to win the auditions for the role of Caroline 'Boots' Tucker on Star Trek:Voyager.Tucker,a gifted but somewhat smart-aleck ensign,will be introduced to the series in mid-October.